there's no place like home

Dorothy was right when she said there's no place like home. After four - nearly five long, yet also short months, I made my first trip back to Ohio over the long Labor Day Weekend, and it was glorious. Not long enough, but it was a start. 

Out of photos I did manage to take, this is probably my favorite. Blurry and all. There's no better welcome than seeing your dog for the first time in almost five months. 

But before I get ahead of myself, let's go back to a few hours before that -

I'm home! How I've missed the patchwork green fields this summer.

After a nice wake up call at 5am I headed off to the airport and hopped on my hour long flight for home and proceeded to fangirl over the corn fields. I've really missed them. I now understand why people not from the Midwest can mistake Ohio and Iowa. 

My first stop home was to my old office to see my favorite work grandma, and then it was straight over to T.J. Chumps for their dill dip and kettle chips. If you live in Ohio near a T.J. Chumps and you haven't gone yet, you are seriously missing out on life. T.J. Chumps, if you can see this - PLEASE for the love of everything holy, find a way to sell the dill dip so it can be shipped to me. I need this in my life! 

And then it was home to see my Roxy. I've missed my dog more than anyone else (sorry mom). 

Even the next day she was so excited to be sporting her scarlet and gray for the first Ohio State game of the season. Too bad we couldn't watch the game at the house (thanks CBS Sports Network, ATT Uverse, and the Buckeye athletic association for making that deal). But it didn't matter, the Buckeyes pulled out the win anyway in the second half, and I got a haircut out of it. The things we do for a Buckeye win....

Outside of seeing Roxy and my family, I was most excited to see a sea of green and big open skies. I've missed that.

It wasn't a long visit home, but it was a much needed visit home. Now it's back to the grind here in steamy Virginia. How much longer until it's fall??

*all photos taken by me with my trusty iPhone

Ohio Pride

The other day my Facebook feed was being plastered with this infographic that claims 55% of Ohioans have liked the Buckeye state on Facebook and have the most state pride. Having just moved nearly three months ago, from my beloved Ohio, I can tell you that I talk about it...a lot. I kind of bring it up whenever I can. 

Now, had you asked me four month ago if I would miss Ohio like I do now, I would have said absolutely not! Oh how naive I was. What do I miss? I miss this...

I miss the seas of green everywhere you go.

I miss having 10 miles to go and getting there in 10 minutes. You might as well just triple the time to miles here...it's really irritating.

I miss having the sun out later. Did you know Ohio has four more minutes of daylight over Virginia? Also, the sun sets here a full 30 minutes before it sets in Ohio.

Most of all I miss my family and my friends and my mom's food. I miss that a LOT.

Thankfully I'm only 34 days away from a nice four-day weekend home, but when I'm really missing home I like to pull out something that screams OH-IO to anyone who sees me (because that's what all good Ohioans do when seeing each other). 

The Home T/Sseko Sandals/Sevenly Ohio Henna T/Ohio Wire Necklace/Beautiful Ohio Print

Is it safe to say that Ohioans have a lot of home spirit? I think it's safe to say that the answer is yes. 

O-H-I-O

*all images taken by me with my trusty iPhone